Show #139: Interviews with Roger McDowell and
Larry Parrish

post from Atlanta Baseball Talk on 20 March 2011 11:48:00 PM. © Atlanta Baseball Talk

We talk with the Braves’ pitching and hitting instructors as well as discuss the future of Brooks Conrad. // var LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_TOTAL_COLLAPSED_WIDTH =…[...]

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Great Pitching: 2nd Half, 2010

post from Baseball In-Depth on 20 March 2011 11:00:00 PM. © Baseball In-Depth

90+ IP, 2.50 ERA or lower (Post All Star Break, 2010)
Felix Hernandez (Mariners) 112 IP, 1.53 ERA (2010 overall: 249.2 IP, 2.27 ERA)
Max Scherzer (Tigers) 102, 2.47 (195.2, 3.50)
Cole Hamels (Phillies) 96.2, 2.23 (208.2, 3.06)
Wandy Rodriguez (Astros) 93.2, 2.11 (195, 3.60)
Roy Oswalt (Astros/Phillies) 91.2, 2.36 (211.2, 2.76)
Daniel Hudson (White Sox/D-Backs) 91.1, 2.07 (95.1, 2.45)

It's another reminder of how good the Phillies' rotation should be this year and that Felix Hernandez could be a 25-game winner on a good team.

I thought a year ago that Wandy Rodriguez might have a breakout season in 2010, but he got off to a bad start and wasn't able to recover in time. His SO/BB got worse last year, but he still strikes out over 8 hitters per 9 innings and is difficult to hit. He is a decent candidate once again for a breakout season.

Max Scherzer also started very slow (3-6, 6.14 ERA on June 15th), but he showed how dominating he can be in the final few months. Over the final 2 months, he had 73 SO and only allowed 22 walks.

Daniel Hudson came out of nowhere and is due to come back to earth a little bit, but he might be a top-line starter in 2011 too. Over the final 2 months of his season, he struck out 70 and only allowed 16 walks. He'll be one of the more interesting starters to watch at the beginning of the season.

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Braves Quote For The Day ... Battle For The Fifth
Starter Spot

post from Talking Chop on 20 March 2011 09:01:42 PM. © Talking Chop

There are probably a lot of opinions out there about who should be the Atlanta Braves fifth starter to open the season. Braves beat writer Mark Bowman gives us his opinion:

But if pressed for a guess right now, I'll stick with Brandon Beachy winning the fifth spot.

My reasoning for Beachy hasn't changed. The Braves paid Mike Minor a big bonus and his upside is tremendous. Thus with just 134 career Minor League innings under his belt, the Braves need to maximize their investment by giving Minor another month or two in the Minors to work on his secondary pitches.

Consider this account of the last spring start by each pitcher:

Minor surrendered five hits and four runs -- three earned -- in six innings against a group of Nationals Minor Leaguers that didn't include Bryce Harper. At the same time, Beachy was about 20 miles away, limiting Magglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera and the rest of the Tigers' lineup to one hit over five scoreless innings.

Admittedly, Minor was working on developing his curve ball, so he threw it a lot in predictable situations and the Nationals hitters caught on. But that's just it, he's still "working on" things and "developing." Hard to believe that a guy who was undrafted out of college might beat out a guy who was the seventh overall pick who signed for millions. Beachy has even made fewer minor league and Major League starts than Minor, and yet it's really anyone's guess as to who the fifth starter job will go to.

I like Bowman's reasoning above.

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Padres acquisition Of Pat Neshek A Smart Move

post from The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on 20 March 2011 08:34:03 PM. © The Ghost of Moonlight Graham

Last year I wrote a post detailing how the San Diego Padres’ bullpen was built. Of the seven pitchers in the Padres’ pen, six were acquired via trade and one was drafted. My point of the piece was that the Padres do a fantastic job of acquiring under appreciated and low-cost assets and turning them [...]

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Mets dispute claim they owe $1 billion (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 20 March 2011 08:15:21 PM. © MLB News Blog

The New York Mets owners have filed legal papers disputing a court trustee’s claim that they owe more than a $1 billion because they should have known that their investments with Bernard Madoff were fraudulent. Mets co-owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz and their investment fund, Sterling Equities, allege trustee Irving Picard made “false allegations” [...]

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Giants drop two in a row for first time all
spring

post from 22gigantes on 20 March 2011 08:04:24 PM. © 22gigantes

Fans at HoHoKam Park vie with Ishikawa for foul ball.Granted, they're only exhibition games. And today's games were split squad affairs. Still, it was the first time all spring that the San Francisco Giants have lost two consecutive Cactus League games as the Chicago Cubs beat the World Champs 3-2 in the 10th inning at HoHoKam Park in Mesa.

Welington Castillo lined a one-out single off Josh Banks to score Bobby Scales from second base with the winning run. Scales had singled to open up the 10th and then stole second.

The Giants had a couple of opportunities to win the game themselves.

In the 8th inning, Travis Ishikawa singled and moved to third on Eli Whiteside's double. Cubs pitcher Sean Marshall threw a wild pitch to score Ishikawa and tie the game. Whiteside moved to third on the play with nobody out. Marshall then got Brad Eldred and Brock Bond to pop out before striking out Mike Fontenot to strand Whiteside at third.

In the top of the 10th inning, the Giants got their first two batters aboard after Justin Christian reached on a fielding error by Cubs shortstop Sterling Castro and Ishikawa walked. After Whiteside's bunt forced Christian out at third, Cubs reliever Marcos Mateo struck out pinch hitter Christopher Dominguez and Brock Bond to end the Giants threat.

Shane Loux got the start for San Francisco and went 3.2 innings, yielding just two hits and one run. Marc Kroon pitched a scoreless 8th inning for the Giants. Kroon could be a potential candidate to replace the injured Brian Wilson as a stop-gap closer in case Wilson misses any extended time. See why I think that's a good move for the Giants here.
Other notes:

The Oakland A's defeated the Giants in their other split squad game, 6-4, at Scottsdale Stadium.
The Giants take on the Colorado Rockies on Monday. Tim Lincecum (3-0) will take the hill for San Francisco. The team will then get a much-needed off day on Tuesday.

GAME SUMMARY
Final score:CHC 3, SF (ss) 2 [view box score]Winning pitcher: Mateo (1-0) Losing pitcher: Banks (0-1) Save: noneGame ball: Scales (2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, SB)Top play: Castillo's walk off single in the bottom of the 10th inningGiant homers: noneGiants' record: 18-8Streak: Lost 2Next up: COL at SF, Monday, 1:05 p.m. PST [download press pass]TV/Radio/Web: sfgiants.com Starters: Jason Hammel (1-0, 3.75) vs. Tim Lincecum (3-0, 2.55)Venue: Scottsdale Stadium

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Mets Owners File to Dismiss Madoff Lawsuit

post from The Mets Report on 20 March 2011 07:51:14 PM. © The Mets Report

Although Fred and Jeff Wilpon and Saul Katz are wealthy, they don’t know very much about investing their money or how it’s handled. At least that’s their story in a legal filing attempting to dismiss the Madoff trustee lawsuit against them for more than $1 billion. The defendants have consistently stated that the trustee’s lawsuit ... Continue Reading

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McCarthy sharp in bid for As spot (AP)

Brandon McCarthy made a pitch for a spot in Oakland’s rotation, taking a shutout into the eighth inning and leading the Athletics over the San Francisco Giants 6-4 in a split-squad game Sunday. McCarthy was lifted after giving up hits to Brandon Belt and Ryan Rohlinger to open the eighth. Aubrey Huff hit a three-run [...]

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Sizemore goes 0 for 2 in spring debut (AP)

Grady Sizemore made two quick outs but wore a big smile after the Cleveland Indians’ 5-3 win over an Arizona Diamondbacks split squad Sunday. The three-time AL All-Star played for the first time since May. Serving as Cleveland’s designated hitter, he grounded out to second base and popped out to center against right-hander Armando Galarraga.

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A's beat Giants 6-4

You've probably heard the comparisons by now. Goes something like this: "The 2011 Oakland A's remind me a lot of last year's San Francisco Giants."

Honestly -- and you know how much I despise the A's -- there's some validity to that statement. Oakland is never going to fool anyone into thinking they have a powerhouse lineup. And their starting pitching is young and full of talent. Sound familiar, Giants fans?

One of those talents -- Brandon McCarthy -- was on display in Scottsdale today and showed fans just how good the A's rotation can be. McCarthy threw seven solid innings as a split squad A's team defeated a split squad Giants team 6-4 on Sunday. He struck out five and did not walk a batter.

McCarthy had a 6-0 lead going into the 8th inning, but gave up leadoff singles to Brandon Belt and Ryan Rohlinger before being replaced by Fernando Cabrera. After a run-scoring grounder Freddy Sanchez, outfielder Aubrey Huff blasted a three-run homer to cut the lead to 6-4. It was Huff's fifth home run of the spring and his fourth in five games.

The A's scored four runs in the second inning off Giants starter Madison Bumgarner. After walking David DeJesus and Chris Carter to lead off the inning, Ryan Sweeney bunted one to Bumgarner, who threw the ball wildly past Belt at first. DeJesus and Carter both scored on the play. Andy LaRoche and Matt Carson delivered RBI singles to give the A's a 4-0 lead. Dan Runzler replaced Bumgarner, who threw just 22 pitches today.

Runzler went three innings himself and looked impressive in his bid to grab one of the last pitching spots available on the Giants' Opening Day lineup. He allowed just one hit and struck out three. Guillermo Mota followed with two scoreless innings himself.
Other notes:

In their other split squad game, the Giants played the Chicago Cubs in Mesa.

GAME SUMMARY
Final score:OAK (ss) 6, SF (ss) 4 [view box score]Winning pitcher: McCarthy (1-0) Losing pitcher: Bumgarner (1-3) Save: Magnuson (1)Game ball: McCarthy (7 IP, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 K, 2 ER)Top play: Carter's RBI triple in the 8th inning added insurance A's neededGiant homers: Huff (5)Giants' record: 18-7Streak: Lost 1Next up: COL at SF, Monday, 1:05 p.m. PST [download press pass]TV/Radio/Web: sfgiants.com Starters: Jason Hammel (1-0, 3.75) vs. Tim Lincecum (3-0, 2.55)Venue: Scottsdale Stadium